Having had prostate cancer and been treated for it at the Beatson Cancer Centre in Glasgow I decided that I should give something back. It was during one of my radiotherapy sessions that I came up with the idea of combining my two great interests - climbing and fiddle playing - to raise some money for Friends of the Beatson and Prostate Cancer UK. The plan was to climb 150 mountains in NW Scotland in one continuous trek, and to play a fiddle tune on top of each summit.

The project has moved on a bit since then. When my grandson Cameron was born in Australia in Nov.2012 I promised to write him a tune. This was duly done and then he got a second one. Then my dear wife got one, someone else got one and it sort of took off from there. There are now a few hundred tunes in the book. My wife had the bright idea of naming tunes after the hills I would be climbing during the trek, so this is what's happened to 150 of them.

The trek begins near Oban on 26th April, where a friend's yacht will whisk me off to the Isle of Mull, where Ben More is the first summit. Then the yacht takes me to Ardnamurchan after which it's all on foot / cycle. The walk follows a circuitous route via Knoydart, Skye, Affric, Torridon, Fisherfield, Easter Ross and Cape Wrath  to end up on Ben Klibreck in Sutherland. Included in the route is the Inaccessible Pinnacle on the Isle of Skye, where I will play my fiddle on its summit. This should be quite spectacular and I hope to have it televised. A support vehicle will make sure my bike is in the right place at the right time and it will also carry two spare fiddles and other essentials. The trek finishes on 27 June 2014.

The fiddle I normally use belonged to my grandfather so I don't want to cart that one around the hills to get damaged. A beat-up fiddle was spotted at St.George's Market in Belfast, going for £35 including case and bow. Haggling got it down to £30; it needed a small amount of work but it sounds OK now, quite sweet in fact. Whether it still sounds OK after 150 hills remains to be seen!

Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page. Please give generously to this project as it will have taken over a year to plan and organise, and it will take two months to complete. It will also cost about £7500 between advertising, B&B, food, equipment, fuel for the backup vehicle and all sorts of unforeseen events.

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity. So it’s the most efficient way to donate – saving time and cutting costs for the charity.